In the Winter of '96

I wouldn't have any hard feelings with Roberts if he'd just admit that he left for more dough and now regrets it. But instead...

It's short, go read it all. There's a few thoughts that float around here. For starters, there's our new friend Personal and Family Reasons cited as the impetus for the request:

Roberts, 40, is apparently concerned that his 16-year-old daughter Jordan, who attends boarding school in Toronto, would be without supervision if he remains in Florida after Roberts' ex-wife Tammy recently moved to Calgary, where Roberts played for the Flames from 1986 to '96.

Now, I actually have arguments with Mrs. Matt about the dubiousness (futility? bad karma?) of criticizing other people's parenting, but Dude, you brought it up. It's OK to send your daughter to boarding school and move to Florida, but only if your ex is a short Greyhound trip away? I might gloss over that, but you know, it was only two months ago that you made those comments about being unhappy in Florida for hockey reasons. It's crap like this that gives Family Reasons a bad name.

Reading about this, I also had a chuckle wondering what Al Strachan is thinking. I like Strach more than most, but I wonder if he'll make a comment about the notoriously subservient Toronto media here. They're like the Bizarro Edmonton Media: the lads in Edmonton turn vicious on everyone who leaves; the Toronto guys turn sweet/blind on everyone who might arrive.

And with slight reference to the Orbs situation here, apparently I ought to be crystal clear: I am not in favour of viewing hockey players like "pieces of meat". I have the strong opinion that it's best for both the league and the players when the players, as individuals, are free to seek the best deal for their own situation, etc. As such, I have very little sympathy for Roberts right now. Cripes - he's the same age & draft year as Mario Lemieux (and Kirk Muller). Refer back to the Selley excerpt at the top of this post.

Anyhoo.... this is all a long and strange way of getting to a nice Gary Roberts story.

When Sacamano and I did Christy's Behind The Blog, I gave Roberts an Honourable Mention under Favourite Player Ever. This is because probably my favourite mini-era in Flames history that does not involve a deep playoff run was the 2nd half of the 1995-96 season.

Background: I came home to Calgary from U about a week before Christmas. Nieuwendyk was holding out, and Roberts was hurt. I went to a home game that night that the Flames lost -- convincingly -- to the Wings, dropping their record to 8-20-5. Oh, and earlier that day, the Flames traded Nieuwy to Dallas for a Cory Millen and a prospect*.

In other words, the Flames stunk, and their top centreman was gonzo. It looked bad. We knew Roberts was getting closer to being able to play, but the neck/back thing was obviously scary, and it was hard to say whether it would make much of a difference anyway.

Turns out the Flames won about 3 or 4 in a row after Christmas, and then shortly after New Year's, Roberts entered the lineup. Pierre Page put him straight in with Fleury (yeah - secondary threats were Nylander and German Titov), and off those lads went.

Roberts ended up scoring 22 goals in his 35GP; this included, IIRC, at least two hat-tricks in his first six games. I was back at Queen's at this point, and this was before regional Sportsnet, home internet (no freakin Yahoo Spprts, let alone NHL.com or streaming broadcasts). So there was one way to follow the team that was "faster" than waiting for the highlight shows or morning newspapers...

Before it was The Score, it was Headline Sports. And before it was Headline Sports, it was this ridiculous-looking all-text channel, that updated in something close to real time--but only one score on the screen at a time. No ticker or anything like it. (Anyone else remember this? I'm only 32...). My Calgarian buddy and I would turn to it about the time when the Mountain Time games should be nearly over (or, ahem, when we got home from the bar), and see what was going on. If the game was close but not over, we'd have to keep it on this stupid channel, because for 10 seconds every five minutes, it would update the score and scorers.

The best of course (and my failing/maudlin memory tells me it happened a few times) was when the Flames were down 3-2 with (say) 5 minutes left in the game. Then, spring training and basketball scores would roll for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, the hockey scores started again, and eventually it got to this:

The "personal reasons" excuse is going to be the automatic opt-out phrase from now on, because anyone who criticizes it is suddenly a monster. It's a great debate trick, forcing someone into a counter-opinion that is untenable or unpopular, but ultimately it's sophistry. Total bullshit. All of us make decisions in our life, and we have to stick with them. Lots of men and women make sacrifices for their job. My dad spends most of the year in another city, just so he can pay the bills. He doesn't just get a transfer because he misses me.

And if we recognize that hockey players' talents are so rare as to allow them to dictate where and when they work, we should also recognize that their unique talents allow them to be uniquely compensated. Don't come crying to us because you miss your kids or you commited an act of infidelity. Lots of us are in the same boat, and we don't have millions of dollars to cover it up.

>>The "personal reasons" excuse is going to be the automatic opt-out phrase from now on, because anyone who criticizes it is suddenly a monster. It's a great debate trick, forcing someone into a counter-opinion that is untenable or unpopular, but ultimately it's sophistry. Total bullshit.<<

Bulls-eye!

Oh, and Matt, I remember Headline Sports text-only days...and that I was glad to have the channel... ;-)